WhatsApp will start showing ads in ‘Status’ by 2020

Since getting acquired by Facebook in Feb 2014 and later on dropping their subscription fee back in 2016, WhatsApp has been looking for a way to monetize itself. For some time now, there’s been talk about ads coming to WhatsApp. Well, turns out the rumors were true. WhatsApp’s vice president Chris Daniels has confirmed that the Status feature will start showing ads in the coming months:

We are going to be putting ads in ‘Status’. That is going to be primary monetisation mode for the company as well as an opportunity for businesses to reach people on WhatsApp.

The original principles explains why WhatsApp didn’t engage in the business of selling ads. But that was then. The popular Instant messaging platform was sold to Facebook, the founders left the company, motivated in part by Facebook exploring advertising-based revenue models for the service without consulting them. The company introduced ways for the service to make money from businesses earlier this year.

At the moment, there’s still no word as to when exactly this is going to show upwe on your WhatsApp. Earlier reports had hinted that the monetization push would begin fully from early 2019. Daniels said that the ads would be the service’s “primary monetisation mode for the company” and would offer “an opportunity for businesses to reach people.”

WhatsApp status was introduced to the platform early 2017 to take on the then very popular ‘Stories’ feature found on Instagram and Snapchat. Since then, WhatsApp status has become so popular, even surpassing Snapchat usage.

WhatsApp status allows users to add a combination of text, photos, and videos to their profile, which are encrypted in the same way as messages. By default, Status updates are visible to a user’s contacts for 24 hours before they disappear.